Crowdfunding Fashion

Hey guys,
We are planning on launching a crowd-funding campaign soon that will (fingers crossed) bring one of the finest dress shirts to market.
We would like to get some feedback on our product and thought that a men's wear forum would be the best channel to receive valid opinions.
Here is a preview link of the campaign that details out the quality aspects of these shirts: The world?s finest shirts

We would love some feedback on the product and any views that you might have to express.

We haven't mentioned the price on the landing page but the collection will start at $129 retail but an early bird special will be included for the crowd-funding campaign.

I have been wearing tailored shirts for a number of years, and my candid feedback is as follows:

1) the shirts (if tailored to each individual as per the advert) do not look like they fit the models very well, especially around the shirt cuffs (quite a big opening). A couple of the shirt collars looked too large also, drooping down towards the front, almost like they are 1/2" too large

2) the details you highlight are not unique enough to claim to be the worlds best, it's not a strong enough proposition. For example 100% Egyptian cotton and higher thread counts are pretty much standard in most bespoke tailors, along with options for initials and so on.

3) to be taken seriously by the shirt connoisseur, you need to compare yourself with the tailor / savile row shirt makers etc rather than high street designer labels. Most people accept that these brands do not offer the highest quality. To differentiate yourself, what do your shirts have that is better than say hilditch and key, new and longwood, edge and skinner, manning and manning etc? These are what people would regard as some of the worlds best, so your brand needs to understand the cloth, stitching, finishing and cutting techniques of these to be regarded as the best. Fabric being fundamental of course!

4) finally, in the personal outro at the end of the video, the guy on the left really does need to wear his shirt a bit better when asking for money for a shirt business - having the top button open on a smart shirt brand makes it look too big, informal and scruffy, it should at the very least be paired with a tie with a perfect knot.

Also just to add - what is the tailor process, how does this work? This forms a key part of your product and it's not even covered in the video?

Nice idea, always good to see more people offering quality at a better price point but personally I think a MTM service where people self measure will often not work out with shirts fitting too well compared to going to a tailor which would be my own thoughts if I was after a really good quality shirts.

Also feedback on the video, some of the overall product shots really need to be slowed down if you want to make a fuss about perfect fit then you need to take the time to actually show the details of this as well as ideally showing a variety. Having one guy fitting a variety of shirts doesn't mean you can do a good fit for a variety of body types and also make sure they're properly ironed and you can't still see packaging fold lines!

My only other point that I did find slightly odd is it seems as if you have had your logo and the video done in complete isolation, they clash in style quite heavily and confuse me somewhat as to the overall branding of yourselves.

Another point having just reviewed it again, it's not coming across clear enough what exactly you are asking for in the video. The thread title is 'crowd funding' which implies you want people to become part of a joint venture to launch the shirt line, yet you are also saying you are selling them for $129.

However by looking on google I can see you already have an established brand selling tailored suits and accessories with the same brand name.

So what are you looking for, customers to buy the worlds best shirts at $129, or people to fund a new shirt line? If so, how much do you want to raise? Where will the money go? How much will people expect to see as a return, and what are these figures based on? How do they contribute money?

The question any investor will ask, if that is what you are looking for, is why your business and clothing lines are not able to support the funding for a new line of shirts??

Thank you for the feedback Creed appreciate you taking the time out to go through the details. Here's our thoughts on the points that you mentioned:
1. The cuff on the left hand side of the shirt is made slightly larger to accommodate for a watch that anyone would normally wear. The right hand side shows a slight opening because the model has his hand pressed against his leg. We cater to different cuff measurements depending on the individuals preferences.
The collar is constructed allowing the wearer to insert two fingers between the neck and collar. This is done to allow ease of movement and prevent the wearer from feeling restricted.

2. Essentially the shirts we produce are modelled around the shirts produced by Parisian brand Charvet and Italian label Fray. The details that we have mentioned on the page when compared to these two shirt makers would show high degrees of similarity (24 Stitches per Inch, Australian Mother of Pearl Buttons, 3mm French Seams, 200 stitches in buttonholes, shoulder to sleeve pattern matching etc.)
Our shirts also go through 72 quality checkpoints as part of the quality control process before being dispatched.
We aren't really competing with traditional shirt makers such as the one's you have mentioned as they have a long standing heritage and we completely respect the quality of their work. What we are trying to do though is make a really fine shirt affordable to the masses. Starting at $129 with the above mentioned quality points we are sure that our pricing is very competitive in the market.
Terming it the world's best shirts was essentially in relation to designer labels and the pricing we've adopted. We don't intend to disrespect quality shirt makers on Saville Row and others such as Alexander Kabbaz.

4. We can't really change too much of the video now, but thank you for the feedback, we will just be better prepared to face such questions during the campaign

The tailoring process is a self measure process that will be outlined during the campaign. We have measures in place to account for mistakes in measurements and a perfect fit policy where alteration credit and remakes are possible options.
We really appreciate the feedback that you have provided and we will incorporate some of the changes with regards to the messaging and portrayal of our shirts.
Thank you once again for the honesty, not many people feel that this would be beneficial

Another point having just reviewed it again, it's not coming across clear enough what exactly you are asking for in the video. The thread title is 'crowd funding' which implies you want people to become part of a joint venture to launch the shirt line, yet you are also saying you are selling them for $129.

However by looking on google I can see you already have an established brand selling tailored suits and accessories with the same brand name.

So what are you looking for, customers to buy the worlds best shirts at $129, or people to fund a new shirt line? If so, how much do you want to raise? Where will the money go? How much will people expect to see as a return, and what are these figures based on? How do they contribute money?

The question any investor will ask, if that is what you are looking for, is why your business and clothing lines are not able to support the funding for a new line of shirts??

Essentially the page you are looking at is a landing page as a promotion to the crowd funding campaign that will be hosted on Indiegogo. More about how to pledge and how much we intend to raise will be detailed there.
This is just to inform people about the product and sign up to get notified of the launch.

We are a very small company having started just a few months ago and hence utilising the crowd funding platform to fund our initial growth.

Nice idea, always good to see more people offering quality at a better price point but personally I think a MTM service where people self measure will often not work out with shirts fitting too well compared to going to a tailor which would be my own thoughts if I was after a really good quality shirts.

Also feedback on the video, some of the overall product shots really need to be slowed down if you want to make a fuss about perfect fit then you need to take the time to actually show the details of this as well as ideally showing a variety. Having one guy fitting a variety of shirts doesn't mean you can do a good fit for a variety of body types and also make sure they're properly ironed and you can't still see packaging fold lines!

My only other point that I did find slightly odd is it seems as if you have had your logo and the video done in complete isolation, they clash in style quite heavily and confuse me somewhat as to the overall branding of yourselves.

Thank you so much for the feedback Simwells. Agree that the self measure process is hard to execute, but to those that cannot afford to pay for bespoke shirts, this would seem like an alternative.
We want to make fine clothing accessible to men and not just limit it to a certain section of the population.

We will incorporate the changes that you have mentioned with regards to packaging fold lines, we will make sure that none of this is visible when we do display the product on our website.

The logo was indeed made prior to the video, could you explain more on how they clash in style? Perhaps we could make some changes to improve on that.

I have been wearing tailored shirts for a number of years, and my candid feedback is as follows:

1) the shirts (if tailored to each individual as per the advert) do not look like they fit the models very well, especially around the shirt cuffs (quite a big opening). A couple of the shirt collars looked too large also, drooping down towards the front, almost like they are 1/2" too large

2) the details you highlight are not unique enough to claim to be the worlds best, it's not a strong enough proposition. For example 100% Egyptian cotton and higher thread counts are pretty much standard in most bespoke tailors, along with options for initials and so on.

3) to be taken seriously by the shirt connoisseur, you need to compare yourself with the tailor / savile row shirt makers etc rather than high street designer labels. Most people accept that these brands do not offer the highest quality. To differentiate yourself, what do your shirts have that is better than say hilditch and key, new and longwood, edge and skinner, manning and manning etc? These are what people would regard as some of the worlds best, so your brand needs to understand the cloth, stitching, finishing and cutting techniques of these to be regarded as the best. Fabric being fundamental of course!

4) finally, in the personal outro at the end of the video, the guy on the left really does need to wear his shirt a bit better when asking for money for a shirt business - having the top button open on a smart shirt brand makes it look too big, informal and scruffy, it should at the very least be paired with a tie with a perfect knot.

Also just to add - what is the tailor process, how does this work? This forms a key part of your product and it's not even covered in the video?

I hope this isn't too scathing, just being honest!

I would echo quite a lot of what Creed has mentioned above.

From a personal point of view the physical size of the collar is quite large and so are the cuff opening. I know you have addressed in your response but from an asthetic point of view I would prefer smaller.

The sleeve width also appears quite wide. I think a slimmer sleeve would look more tidy generally and would fit in with the increasing desire for shirts to be truly slim fit.

I would also like to see different collar types.

Finally, are these only going to be made in single button cuff or will there be French/double cuff variations. In professional environments double cuff is the preferred.

From a personal point of view the physical size of the collar is quite large and so are the cuff opening. I know you have addressed in your response but from an asthetic point of view I would prefer smaller.

The sleeve width also appears quite wide. I think a slimmer sleeve would look more tidy generally and would fit in with the increasing desire for shirts to be truly slim fit.

I would also like to see different collar types.

Finally, are these only going to be made in single button cuff or will there be French/double cuff variations. In professional environments double cuff is the preferred.

Hi Happydayz, appreciate your input on our product.
With regards to different collar types and different cuff types we will be offering 10 collar types and 8 cuff types (which will include the double cuff) which will be outlined in the crowd funding campaign. If and when the shirts are launched on our website then that too will have the same options.